Sleep products are generally tailored to the age and size of the user. Infants generally start out sleeping in a bassinet or cradle. Toddlers use cribs up until they are ready to sleep in a conventional bed.
Bassinets and cradles are generally small and can be kept in a parent's room so that the infant is close to the parents during its first few months. Known bassinets and cradles are not collapsible into a compact configuration and only function as sleep products. Moreover, bassinets and cradles have a limited life and use because they are quickly outgrown by infants. However, cribs are generally too large to fit into a parent's room. Thus, there is a need for a smaller sleep product for use in a parent's room that has a sleep surface and sufficient depth to laterally restrain the infant during use, but that overcomes the limited life and use associated with known bassinets and cradles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,432 to Kujawski et al., which is assigned to the assignee of this invention, discloses a multi-use product including a bassinet and playpen in one product. The playpen is of the type including a frame covered by playpen fabric. The flat bassinet/diaper changing surface is inset into the open end of the playpen to make it more accessible for naps and diaper changing. The bassinet/diaper changing surface is a fabric enclosure with a rigid floor mat. The fabric is draped over the upper edge of the playpen and rigid hook-shaped clips sewn to the fabric are secured to the upper edge of the playpen. As this product is on the scale of a playpen, it is larger than a bassinet.
In the vein of portability, but apart from sleep products, infant seats are available that are usually formed from rigid shells that are portable but not collapsible into a compact configuration. In one type of infant seat proposed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,115,523; 5,092,004; and 4,998,307 all to Cone, the infant seat includes a rigid shell assembly having upper and lower shell portions pivotally coupled together so as to be convertible between a flat configuration and a seated configuration. Although this seat is portable it is cumbersome and is not collapsible into a compact configuration.
Known bouncer seats of the type disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,478 to Freese et al. include a portable infant seat where the back is convertible between an upright and a tilted position. Although these bouncer seats can be collapsed for portability, they are not intended for use as a sleep product, for example, they are not convertible into a horizontal position.
Accordingly, what is needed is a small, lightweight, collapsible infant product that has a range of utilities including a sleep product and a seating product.